[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-601806-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-601806-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","revisiting-public-schooluniversity-partnerships-for-formal-leadership-development-a-brief-30-year-retrospective","Revisiting Public School/University Partnerships for Formal Leadership Development - A Brief 30-Year Retrospective","","Explores how Kansas State University’s Department of Educational Leadership developed lasting partnerships with Kansas public schools to strengthen formal leadership preparation. Traces the rationale behind establishing leadership academies, moving from traditional credit-bound models toward in-service, field-connected professional development. Reviews key transitions and two early collaboration phases, explaining shared goals, mutual risk, and how co-taught credit programs generated credibility, targeted staff development, and leadership succession planning through evolving university-district alignment.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/revisiting-public-schooluniversity-partnerships-for-formal-leadership-development-a-brief-30-year-retrospective/601806/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/revisiting-public-schooluniversity-partnerships-for-formal-leadership-development-a-brief-30-year-retrospective/601806.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"ahduag","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What prompted Kansas State University to pursue public school partnerships for leadership development?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The university recognized that its faculty had deep knowledge but often lacked current field experience, while school districts were building noncredit professional development alternatives. Both sides were seeking ways to reconnect and bridge the divide through shared leadership development efforts.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What were the goals of the leadership academies within these partnerships?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"They focused on developing formal school leadership capacity and leadership succession plans, and later broadened to include recognition forms such as distributed leadership to strengthen systems and optimize human capital resources.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How did the partnership work during the first wave beginning in 1987?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"K-State and a nearby large school system provided selected in-service building-level leaders with additional professional development for academic credit, with the university collaborating with appointed senior district leaders to design credit courses that could count toward terminal degrees.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},601806,1792882849,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":33,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":123},3985747870414,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","The Kansas State University Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership reviews the strong history of his department’s university and public school partnerships and the impact he has seen those partnerships have on leadership preparation programs.  \nRevisiting Public School/University Partnerships for Formal Leadership Development:  \nA Brief 30-Year Retrospective  \nDavid C. Thompson  \nDr. David C. Thompson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership at Kansas State University. His 43-year career includes experience as a teacher, principal, superintendent, and the professoriate. Dr. Thompson holds an Ed.D from Oklahoma State University and postdoctoral credit from Harvard. He has been at Kansas State University since 1987, where he holds the title of Elvon G. Skeen Endowed Chair in Education.  \nIntroduction  \nAlmost exactly 30 years ago, Kansas State University foresaw the power of partnerships with public schools in preparing new generations of formal school leaders. A themed issue of Educational Considerations (Fall 1988)1 celebrated that recognition, showcasing how the university had partnered with selected large Kansas school districts for development of leadership capacity. It was not only the university that recognized such power – then Commissioner Lee Droegemuller noted in the inside front cover of the special issue of Educational Considerations that real change in schools through partnerships requires “specific, mutually agreed-upon goals and objectives [wherein] each partner knows what the other has to offer and has a realistic view of what might be accomplished; …employability, curriculum and skill development, and management and leadership; [and] leverage of both financial and human resources.”  \nThese insights proved exactly on target for Kansas State University and partner school districts over the next three decades. Partnerships for leadership development – known as leadership academies,2 in this case – took root, prospered, evolved, and multiplied to the point at which today K-State is simultaneously partnering with no fewer than seven school districts statewide in mid-2016, all having the purpose of developing formal school leadership capacity and leadership succession plans. These academies have also broadened to include other leadership recognition, most notably distributed leadership for systemic strength and optimization of human capital resources. This outcome was possible only because all partners were committed to unusual risk and were insightful in rearranging tradition to accommodate new models of inquiry, new models of institutional support, and new models of thinking about authority, power, and hierarchies in the educational world. The story of this success is retraced herein brief.  \nEducational Considerations 11  \nTransitions from Traditions  \nThe centuries-old model of higher education, wherein students come to the ivory tower to learn at the feet of the masters, went out the window in K-State’s case nearly 30 years ago. The context of the original birth and subsequent rebirth and expansion of new models of leadership academies (circa 2000) was grounded in dissatisfaction on the part of the university because it came to realize that its faculty held deep knowledge but often lacked either currency of field experience, or in some cases, no experience at all. At the same time the university was struggling with its disconnect from dynamic practice, Kansas school districts in general were forging their own alternatives to that same disconnect by championing and relying on noncredit in-service models of professional development, with the full support of the state department of education. While anyone wanting a professional license in order to serve as a school leader  \nstill needed to pursue a traditional university course of tightly prescribed study, practicing school leaders had no compelling reason to return to a university setting except to earn additional degrees. Simu","cbCaieJpJDdl951Y","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieJpJDdl951Y","pdf",151616,"English","# Introduction\n# Transitions from Traditions\n## First Wave\n## Second Phase","[{\"question\":\"What prompted Kansas State University to pursue public school partnerships for leadership development?\",\"answer\":\"The university recognized that its faculty had deep knowledge but often lacked current field experience, while school districts were building noncredit professional development alternatives. Both sides were seeking ways to reconnect and bridge the divide through shared leadership development efforts.\"},{\"question\":\"What were the goals of the leadership academies within these partnerships?\",\"answer\":\"They focused on developing formal school leadership capacity and leadership succession plans, and later broadened to include recognition forms such as distributed leadership to strengthen systems and optimize human capital resources.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the partnership work during the first wave beginning in 1987?\",\"answer\":\"K-State and a nearby large school system provided selected in-service building-level leaders with additional professional development for academic credit, with the university collaborating with appointed senior district leaders to design credit courses that could count toward terminal degrees.\"}]","Revisiting Public School/University Partnerships for Formal Leadership Development - A Brief 30-Year Retrospective | PDF",1792093461]